Summary

We have two class offerings: an introductory class and an intermediate class.

Class Description: introductory class

In this class, students will explore how to create games, animations, stories, and art using Scratch, a computer learning tool that teaches programming skills. Students will draw pictures, add sound and movement, and share their projects with the class.

Children will both examine existing programs and design their own new programs, using a visual programming language that snaps together on screen using graphical blocks. The class will learn about mathematical and computational concepts in a meaningful and motivating context. They will learn about the process of design, and develop key 21st century learning skills in the areas of creative thinking, collaboration, communication, and analysis. Scratch is a product of MIT's Lifelong Kindergarten Project. More information about Scratch is available at:

Class Description: intermediate class

In this class, students will build on the skills they learned in the "Introduction to Scratch" class to design and implement larger and more complex computer games, animations, stories, and art. We will work on strategies for collaboration and add sounds and photos we record to our projects. Admissions preference will be given to students who took the Fall or Winter Scratch class.

Call for Volunteers

I am looking for volunteers who can help plan and teach the class, to be held over the next five weeks. If you have computer programming skills, multimedia authoring skills, or education skills, you could make a significant contribution to this project.

If I could find one volunteer to help me in the classroom, that would really help. It is during the day on a weekday, but there are only 5 class sessions, and it should only take about 2 hours of your time.

Schedule

The classes run from 12:30-1:45 PM on Wednesday afternoons. Volunteers need to arrive at 12:15 and stay until 2 PM each day.

The class is held in the large computer lab and conference room inside the school library.

Spring 2008 Term Schedule

The dates for the Spring 2008 Arts Alive term are:

May 7

May 14

May 21

May 28

June 4

The Spring term will be an Intermediate Scratch class, with a new set of lesson plans.

Winter 2008 Term Schedule

The dates for the Winter 2008 Arts Alive term were:

Feb. 20

Feb. 27

Mar. 5

Mar. 12

Mar. 26

These were all Wednesdays. The class had a one-week hiatus in March for Spring Break; there were no classes on Wed. Mar. 19.

About Campbell

This seminar meshes particularly well with the Integrated Curriculum that Campbell uses (from an older version of their site):

Campbell incorporates core curriculum in a two-year cycle of thematic, intensive projects that encourage deep learning which transfers to other contexts. Integrated study -- incorporating language arts, science, social science, mathematics, art and music into a single project -- fosters love of learning, an understanding of the interconnections of the world, and the knowledge that there's a purpose to learning specific skills.

Licensing

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".